Zech. 14:9

"The Lord will be king over all the earth"

What a vision for the world Zechariah had! He was certainly faithful to his calling, exhorting the people to press on to rebuild the temple. Yet his understanding of God’s purpose was much greater-it was for all the nations! He said, “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord…and will become My people” (2:11). “A mongrel race…will be a remnant for our God” (9:6, 7). What better way to be faithful to the Lord and His Church than to be involved with His plans for reaching the nations?

Lord in heaven, help us to be obedient to the word You gave through Zechariah, “Get on with the job and finish it! You have been listening long enough!” (8:9 Living Bible).

Albanian Muslims

“No Mother Teresa statue here. Only Allah! No idols in our space!” Hundreds of Muslims were shouting and protesting in the streets against plans to erect a statue of Mother Teresa, the ethnic Albanian Catholic nun. Their leader spoke out firmly. “We do not want this statue to be erected in the center of our city. She is a religious figure and if there must be a statue put up of her, let it be in a Catholic Church. This is very offensive to us as Muslims.”

Seventy percent of Albania’s population of 595,000 are classified as liberal Muslims and the rest are Orthodox Christians or Catholics. With the communist takeover in the 1940s, most Albanians eventually gave up their traditional religious beliefs. In 1967, Albania declared itself as “the world’s first atheistic state.” Since the fall of communism in 1990, Muslim missionaries have swarmed into Albania to re-evangelize Albanians, giving much needed financial aid and building mosques. Responses like the one to Mother Teresa’s statue shows that these Muslim missionaries are reaching the hearts of Albanians.